Google is making page speed a factor in mobile search rankings

Nevertheless, content is king

Google’s ever-evolving page rank algorithm is notoriously tricky, to say the least. The search giant takes into account a number of factors when assigning page rank, one of which is speed. At least, that’s been the case with desktop searches for some time.

Soon, the signal will also impact mobile searches.

Google on Wednesday said that starting in July, page speed will also be a ranking factor for mobile searches. The Speed Update, as Google is calling it, will reportedly only impact pages that deliver the “slowest experience” to users and thus, only affect a small percentage of queries.

The change will apply the same standard to all pages, we’re told, regardless of the technology used to build the page.

Of course, Google is quick to point out that content is still king which means a slow page may still rank highly if it delivers quality, relevant content.

Google notes that while there is no tool that directly indicates whether a page will negatively be impacted by the new signal, there are some general resources that can be used to evaluate a page’s performance:

Chrome User Experience Report, a public dataset of key user experience metrics for popular destinations on the web, as experienced by Chrome users under real-world conditions

Lighthouse, an automated tool and a part of Chrome Developer Tools for auditing the quality (performance, accessibility, and more) of web pages

PageSpeed Insights, a tool that indicates how well a page performs on the Chrome UX Report and suggests performance optimizations